White House considers Kansas bank regulator for Fed seat: source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is considering nominating Kansas’s top bank regulator to fill a long-open seat on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, a source said on Monday.

The seal for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is displayed in Washington, U.S., June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

If nominated by Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Michelle Bowman, the commissioner of the Kansas State Bank Commission since January, would fill a position at the central bank reserved for someone with community banking experience.

Politico first reported that Bowman was under consideration. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prior to leading the Kansas regulator, Bowman was a vice president for Farmers & Drovers Bank, a community bank in the state.

She also previously worked on the staff of then-U.S. Senator Bob Dole and as counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, according to an online biography posted on the Kansas regulator’s website.

Bowman also worked for the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President George W. Bush.

If confirmed, she would fill a seat that has remained open since 2014, when the U.S. Congress passed a bill requiring the Fed to reserve one seat on its policymaking board for someone with community banking experience.

Former President Barack Obama named Allan Landon to fill the seat, but his nomination expired this year after Senate Republicans refused to push it forward.